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Adelaide, Op 46

Introduction

In the case of Adelaide we unusually have a record of the comments made by the original poet. In fact Friedrich Matthison was decidedly underwhelmed by Beethoven’s efforts, remarking that of the several other settings his poem had so far inspired, Beethoven’s was the least sensitive!

The main problem appears to have been the piano part. With the benefit of hindsight it may appear innocent enough, especially when set beside those by, say, Rachmaninov; yet at the time, the solo-sonata style Beethoven adopts for the third verse in particular was perceived as overbalancing the text.

Similarly the dramatic outpourings of that same verse, with its sudden changes of dynamic and the Mozartian Allegro molto final verse, were considered more suited to the opera house than the drawing room. This uncharacteristic outburst of theatricals may have been inspired by Beethoven’s studies with opera maestro Salieri (the legendary Mozart poisoner), although the songs of his old teacher, Christian Neefe (1748-1798), also leant in this direction.

Recordings

Beethoven was not a keen song writer, yet despite this almost half of his total works call for a voice. The present album includes some of the best of those compositions interpreted by accomplished tenor John Mark Ainsley and his accompanist Iain ...» More

'Stephan Genz has one of the most beautiful voices around today, used with such authority and imagination that I have found myself playing his Beetho ...'This disc, immaculately recorded, should win many new friends for Beethoven's songs' (The Daily Telegraph)» More

'Stephan Genz has one of the most beautiful voices around today, used with such authority and imagination that I have found myself playing his Beethov ...'This disc, immaculately recorded, should win many new friends for Beethoven's songs' (The Daily Telegraph)» More

'this is singing which is always alive, interesting, and personal … a fascinating record' (Gramophone)'[Schade] sings Strauss’s Cäcilie and a wonderfully hushed Zueignung as though he and Martineau were the first to discover their ecstasy ...» More

One day, O miracle! Upon my grave will blossom forth A flower from the ashes of my heart; Every crimson leaf will carry the clear inscription: Adelaide!

We seldom think of vocal music as one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s special provinces, particularly in the light of his supernal achievements in the symphony, sonata and string quartet. Yet for many years Beethoven undoubtedly composed the finest, most substantial and most durable voice-and-piano songs of his era: unsurpassed until Franz Schubert came into his own in 1814. Indeed Beethoven’s first great public success was with a vocal work: the scena Adelaide, which quickly found its way to almost every piano in Vienna. Beethoven sketched Adelaide in 1795 and completed it the following year; it reached print without opus number in 1797, along with such scores as his Op 5 cello sonatas and his Op 7 piano sonata, and in 1803 a publisher reissued it as the composer’s Op 46. Despite its youthful origins and occasional operatic graces, Adelaide already bears a true Beethovenian stamp: in the rich keyboard part which imparts rhythmic tension to the courtly melody, in the bronzed twilight modulation toward the central portion where discreet pictorialization of nightingale-song plays a structural role, and in the cumulative momentum that sustains the eloquent lengths of Beethoven’s closing allegro molto.